Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Magician and performance bizarrist Michael Carbonaro has performed more than 500 “comically perplexing” and feats of magic on his hit TV series The Carbonaro Effect.

On the show, he fools unsuspecting members of the public who don't know that he is a magician. In one segment, he makes a car disappear before a security guard, and in another, he makes alien crabs transform into kittens in a science lab. He’s posed as a coffeeshop barista, a museum curator and a store clerk.

Comedian Ali Wong — whose outrageous Netflix specials Hard Knock Wife and Baby Cobra pulled back the curtain on the horrors and hilarity of motherhood — is bringing her newest standup show to Cleveland next year.

Hitting up the Masonic Cleveland Auditorium May 3, the stop is only one of 13 announced thus far in the new year. Unlike her last two comedy specials, Wong isn't pregnant. But rest assured, the comic will have plenty to talk about as a mother of two.

Classical music-making winds down between Christmas and New Year’s, but here are a few performances that should bend your ear during that holiday period.

The outdoor music of bells helps define the spirit of Christmas, and the McGaffin Carillon at the Church of the Covenant in University Circle will peal out at 12:15 pm every weekday from December 19 through New Year’s Eve. University Circle carillonneur George Leggiero and guests will play seasonal music at lunchtime and provide a 7:00 pm prelude of traditional carols and music by J.S. Bach and Nino Rota on Christmas Eve, before the church’s candlelit organ concert and lessons and carols service. Outdoors means free (and so is the church service).

The Almeda Trio revives their annual Winter Solstice Concert on Friday, December 21 at 6:00 pm, not at the Planetarium of the Natural History Museum but in Glick Recital Hall at The Music Settlement, and with two guest artists. Violinist Mari Sato and pianist Anne Wilson will join Almeda founder and cellist Ida Mercer for musical selections from Bach to Brubeck, interspersed with a brief presentation on the science behind the solstice and film footage of deep outer space flight through the solar system. Tickets are available online.

Most American Christmas traditions spring from Britain and Germany, but you’ll have the opportunity to explore lesser-known French traditions when Cleveland’s French Baroque ensemble Les Délices joins Quire Cleveland to present three concerts of charming music by Marc-Antoine Charpentier from December 21-23. Early music specialist Eric Milnes will lead the combined ensembles in Charpentier’s Midnight Mass on French Noëls and Dialogue Between the Angels and the Shepherds, and director Jay White will lead Quire in other French carols to fill out the program. Catch the performances in Akron (7:30 pm on the 21st at Holy Trinity Lutheran), Lakewood (8:00 pm on the 22nd at Lakewood Congregational), or Cleveland (4:00 pm on the 23rd at Our Lady of Peace). Buy tickets online.

The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio will present its annual Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival, a big Elizabethan pageant with colorful costumery and festive music by organ and brass, on Saturday, December 29 at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Cleveland. There are identical programs at 3:00 pm and 5:30 pm, and a freewill offering will be received toward the expenses of the show.

The Hollywood Songbook will be the focus for Cleveland POPS Orchestra’s annual New Year’s bash at Severance Hall, and the headliner is vocalist Erich Bergen, who currently stars as Blake Moran on the hit CBS television drama Madam Secretary. The party gets underway at 9:00 pm on December 31 with a program in the concert hall led by Carl Topilow, with dancing to follow in both lobbies until 1:00 am on the first day of 2019. Tickets can be ordered here.

The Cleveland History Center has just announced that its annual Somewhere in Time party, which takes place at 7 p.m. on Feb. 2, will transport Clevelanders back to the year 1969.

There will be themed drinks, food, music and more as the event centers on a “critical year of protest, revolution and change” and commemorates events such as the river catching on fire and the first lunar landing.

Using pieces from the WRHS Collection, Somewhere in Time: 1969 will share iconic moments and remember the countercultural past in a “cool” and “groovy” way.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - There was a sigh of relief from anti-poverty groups in Ohio when the U.S. Congress protected the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the 2018 Farm Bill.

However, they're holding their breath once again.

After more than a year of hard-fought negotiations and debate, the bill is headed to President Donald Trump's desk with bipartisan support. It includes continued support for SNAP, which helps 1.5 million Ohioans access quality, nutritious foods.

But the Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, says now some state lawmakers are considering some of the provisions for the program that Congress rejected and she calls "draconian."

"And unfortunately, we've seen one of these provisions, House Bill 119, would basically create additional administrative barriers and require all SNAP recipients to do quarterly income verification in order to maintain their benefits," she points out.

The measure would also require information on citizenship status, disability and medical bills.

Supporters contend it will preserve SNAP assistance for those who truly need it, but opponents counter it will force people in need out of the program, and hurt the economy.

The Ohio House passed HB 119 in November, and the Senate approved the bill last week.

More than 67 percent of Ohio SNAP beneficiaries are in families with children, and more than 45 percent are in working families.

Hamler-Fugitt says SNAP is the first line of defense against hunger.

"We must protect this critical lifeline that benefits low-income children, seniors, persons with disability, veterans and low-income working Ohioans, who play by the rules but don't earn enough to put food on their table and a roof over their head," she stresses.

Hamler-Fugitt says she hopes Gov. John Kasich will veto HB 119 when it comes to his desk.

"In this holiday season let's all think about those who are the least among us and struggle and in Ohio more than one-in-eight of our hungry friends and neighbors depend on the SNAP program," she states. "More than one-in-three struggle every day to meet their basic needs. "

The average monthly SNAP benefit for each household member in Ohio is $123. And it's estimated that $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.70 in economic activity.

Let’s start with Christmas concerts, which are numerous during the next two weeks.

Conductor Richard Kaufman is in charge of the Cleveland Orchestra Christmas Concerts this season. There are eleven of them at Severance Hall, beginning on Friday, December 14 and running through Sunday, December 23. The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus will be featured at each performance, joined for certain concerts by the Orchestra’s Children’s Chorus, members of its Youth Chorus, and singers from the College of Wooster and the University of Akron. A special guest, Jamie Farr (a Toledo native) of M*A*S*H, will narrate “The Night Before Christmas.” You might still be able to get tickets. Hurry here.

Readers south of Cleveland should take advantage of three Christmas Candlelight Concerts presented by Summit Choral Society at St. Bernard’s in Akron. The performances will showcase SCS’s several fine children’s choirs as well as its grown-up Metropolitan Chorus under the direction of Britt Cooper. There are three performances: Friday, December 14 through Sunday, December 16 at 7:30 pm. Reserve your seats online.

And Heather Zweifel’s top-notch Burning River Brass will give back-to-back performances of its holiday program on the Arts Renaissance Tremont Series at Pilgrim Church on Sunday, December 16 and Monday, December 17 at 7:30 pm. Freewill offerings will be received, as well as donations of non-perishable food items for the church’s food pantry.

CityMusic Cleveland welcomes Stefan Willich, who leads the World Doctors Orchestra, back for his annual December gig, comprising five performances around the area from December 12-16. Cleveland Orchestra principal oboe Frank Rosenwein will play Richard Strauss’ Oboe Concerto, and Willich will lead the ensemble in a Rossini Overture and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39. Performances are scheduled for Wednesday the 12th (7:30 pm at St. Jerome Church in Collinwood), Thursday the 13th (7:30 pm at the Temple Tifereth-Israel in Beachwood), Friday the 14th (7:30 pm at Lakewood Congregational Church), Saturday the 15th (8:00 pm at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus in Slavic Village), and Sunday the 16th (4:00 pm at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills). No admission charge, but donations are encouraged.

Check out details of these and other events on our Concert Listings page.